10 Things I Do When I Couldn’t Be Stuffed

How I make days easier

How many times have you had a day where you look at your watch and wonder how on earth you are going to get through it or when you’ve got things that you have to do but you simply don’t have the energy or the will power? I have days like this all the time and I have certain things I do to make my days just that little bit easier.

Stop working

Okay, I’ll admit that I’m lucky with this one because I work for myself and can do this whenever I want, but what I really mean is take a break. When life gets too overwhelming, I stop, I walk outside, I make myself a cup of coffee and regroup. If you work for someone else, remember to take a break too.

Go out for dinner

Sometimes (actually a lot of the time) I couldn’t be stuffed cooking. I’m not a meal planner because whenever I’ve ‘planned’ meals I get to the day and don’t at all feel like eating the meal I’ve planned. So anyway, sometimes when I couldn’t be stuffed cooking, we either go out somewhere casual for dinner or we get takeaway. Obviously we’d be broke if we did this every time I didn’t feel like cooking, but when we do do it, it’s certainly a relief and I can RELAX.

Drink coffee

I’m still undecided as to whether coffee or red wine is my favourite beverage, but coffee is hands down my favourite daytime drink (I don’t think it’d look good me sipping on wine at home at 11am in the morning…even though it’s probably past 12pm somewhere). I would not be able to function without my coffee. I’ve wondered what my life would be like without coffee, actually I’ve tried, the side effects weren’t good. My coffee of choice is a double shot soy latte. What’s yours?

Get a massage

This is an absolute must for me and something I try to do at least once every couple of months. A foot massage or reflexology is my favourite, for some reason I seem to carry all of my stress in my feet. It’s an immediate release for me. If finances don’t really allow for me to go and get a professional massage, I try sucking up to Mr. G in the hope that he’ll cave in and say yes to a foot massage. I make his dinner so that should get a massage in return, right?

Enjoy wine

Wine is my weakness. I blame my father for introducing me to the boldness and spiciness of a good red (well that’s how I like my reds anyway). There have been many a day where I’ve made it through but a glass (or two) of wine just makes it that much better.

Forget about the cleaning

I’m not going to go on much about cleaning because I think from my recent posts about ‘embracing the mess’ and ‘mess and unannounced guests‘ you’ll get the idea that I’m happy with mess if it means I can relax and not worry, it’s just not one of my priorities in life. If I were to have a spotless house, I’d be cleaning ALL. THE. TIME. And to me, well that’s just a waste of time and not worth the stress.

Read

I’ve been trying to get myself to read a lot more and not reading on the computer, phone or iPad, I mean reading a book or the newspaper. Reading makes me feel so good because it has an amazing ability to divert my racing mind to something else and when I’m ready to close the book or put the newspaper away, my racing thoughts have magically disappeared and my mind is full of new and wonderful stories and ideas.

Don’t bother with groceries

I always used to do my grocery shopping religiously, the same day every fortnight and then it changed to every week. Well, I just couldn’t maintain that momentum and although I still try to stick to a similar routine, if I just couldn’t be stuffed doing the groceries, I just do a quick top up shop that will last us until I do feel like doing the shopping.

Use the dryer

You may agree that the worst part of doing the laundry is hanging it up on the clothes line, especially when you’ve got endless ‘little peoples’ clothes and the worst, small socks! Every so often when I just couldn’t be stuffed (there’s that phrase again) I chuck it all in the dryer. No, it’s not economical but hey, once every so often isn’t too bad and it’s better for my sanity.

Eat ice-cream

Seriously, this is what I do when I’ve had a pretty average day, it magically makes everything better. Preferably my favourite icecream from Aldi – Triple Chocolate Mudcake. When there’s no ice-cream in the house, that’s bad, real bad. In the case of no ice-cream, I drive up to McDonalds to get a McFlurry…even in my pyjamas. I really don’t care what they think, I’m sure they’ve seen worse, much worse.

What do you do to make it through days that you feel like kicking in the butt? Are you a little bit indulgent like me?

Eva is the Editor and Owner of The Multitasking Woman. She always has her fingers in many different pies but wouldn't have it any other way. Eva is self-employed as a content writer, copywriter and social media manager and is a Mum to her seven-year-old son, two-year-old daughter, five chickens, Benny the dog and wife to Mr G. They all live happily, mid-renovation, in their little worker's cottage in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.

I feel the same way about “meal planning”. I’ve tried it a few times but yep when it comes to the day to make it I don’t feel like it.

I’m afraid to admit this but when I couldn’t be stuffed entertaining the kids myself they get ABC4Kids. And if I don’t feel like making their food myself I give them LCM’s for snacks and sausage rolls for lunch .. they seem to love it.

I”m so glad I’m not the only one that feels that way about meal planning! I see SO many blog posts about how to meal plan and as much as I’d like to do it (and I have tried it before) I just can’t make myself eat something I have no interest in eating. I’ve always been like that with my food. Don’t be afraid, I am the same with ABC4kids and should have added that as an extra point.

I’m with you – sometimes it’s nice to just say “bugger the cooking” and go out for tea, or order pizza and eat it in the lounge. I find that we have some of our best family conversations on these nights because i’m not all stressed out from racing around getting dinner!

Yes! I would much rather feel more chilled and relaxed for the sake of a bit of extra money spent, than feeling like crap. It’s totally worth it!

26 Years & Counting

November 4, 2014 / 2:20 pm

I never had a dryer growing up and my husband convinced me to buy one – at the time we genuinely did need one since he spent a few years being called into work at less than zero notice, so to be able to dry his uniform was pretty handy! But now I don’t use the line at all. If there are a few things I need to hang up, I just use hangers in the bedroom with the fan on.

Oh my God! I am desperate for a massage at the moment. I’ve never had reflexology done, but it sounds awesome. I will have to look into it. We got takeaway last Thursday night because I couldn’t be stuffed and it was the best decision I made all week! #teamIBOT

When I’ve had a meh day I find that having a nice hot shower helps me to feel better. I have it as hot as I can stand and to me it feels like I am been wrapped in the water. I also go to the takeaway dinner.

I think you covered all the bases. Except, I actually enjoy hanging out the clothes. I love standing there in the sunshine and watching all the lovely clean clothes all line up. I think it’s my need for structure that makes me find the clothesline all organised so relaxing. Plus, I find that my kids cannot find me when I am at the clothesline. Still, I cannot carry a full basket of wet clothes out to the line, so I rarely do this. Maybe this adds to my enjoyment, cause now I make Husband carry it out for me and we both stand out there in the sunshine and chat.

I think I’d enjoy hanging out the clothes more if it weren’t 30 degree heat and I didn’t have the risk of getting sunburn after 10 minutes of hanging out clothes! I want one of those old school laundry baskets on wheels…would go perfectly with my hills hoist! I’m doing fine, suffering from bad anxiety this week but I”ll get through. xx

Love this! Will have to bookmark it for when I next come down with a case of the ‘can’t be stuffed’s’!!

Hi! I'm Eva, a busy mum of two young children and a freelance copywriter and social media manager. Since being diagnosed with Bipolar and Anxiety Disorder in 2017, I've been on a quest to live a lifestyle that supports my mental health. It is this quest that lead me to changing the focus of TMW to a blog about self-care and wellbeing for busy women. Through TMW I aim to encourage busy women to fill their cup first amongst the juggling of family, work and relationships, in order to achieve their goals and dreams. TMW is all about you and I hope you enjoy it.